|
V 

Unit 9 Teaching Speaking

{VVV
VV
 
 Unit 9 Teaching Speaking
Issues for discussion:
1. Characteristics of spoken language
2. Principles for designing speaking
activities
3. Using group work in speaking
activities
4. Common types of speaking activities
•
  


 
· Speaking is a skill, just like swimming,
driving a car, or playing ping-pong.
· Too often, in the traditional classroom,
the learning of English has been
relegated to linguistic knowledge only,
e.g. knowledge of vocabulary and
grammar rules, with little or no attention
paid to practising language skill.
 Aow can we tell the difference
between knowledge and skill?
· ccording to Bygate (1987:4) one
³fundamental difference is that both
can be understood and memorised, but
only a skill can be imitated and
practised´.
 Π

 


· 

· 
 

 Π

 



· In most situations, people do not plan ahead
of time what they are going to say.
· The fact that speech is spontaneous means
that it is full of false starts, repetitions,
incomplete sentences, and short phrases.
· Should we expect the students to produce
complete sentences in language classroom?
 Π

 


 

· The students must be able to produce
unplanned utterances in real time; otherwise
people will not have the patience to listen to
them.
·
hich of the following activities do you
think would help to prepare students for real
life speech in English?
· eading aloud (needs to be supplemented
with more realistic activities as the level
increases).
· iving a prepared talk (may be used for
advanced level)
· earning a piece of text or dialogue by heart
more realistic activities as the level
increases).
· Interviewing someone, or being interviewed
(Yes. It helps to prepare students for real
life speech .)
· oing a drill (needs to be supplemented
with more realistic activities as the level
increases) .
· eading aloud (needs to be supplemented
with
needsmore
to berealistic activities
supplemented withas more
the level
realistic
increases).
activities as the level increases.
· iving a prepared talk (may be used for
may be used
advanced for advanced level.
level)
· earning a piece of text or dialogue by heart
needs to
more be supplemented
realistic activities with
as themore level
realistic
activities as the level increases.
increases).
· Interviewing someone, or being interviewed
(Yes.
Yes. ItIt helps
helps toto prepare
prepare students
students for
for real
real life
life speech .)
speech.
· oing a drill (needs to be supplemented
needs
with to be
more supplemented
realistic with
activities as themore
level realistic
activities as
increases) . the level increases.
· lso students must consider whom
they are talking to and be able to check
if they are being understood.
· e.g.
· ± Aey Jack, how¶s the project coming
along?
·  
hat project?
· ± The one you and Craig are working
on.
·   Craig and I?
· ± Yeah, for the science fair.
·   h, that project. It¶s finished. I¶m so
busy working on another project for my
economics class that I almost forgot about it.
I hope it¶ll work like we want to.
· ± h, I¶m sure it will.
 • 



· ne important consideration:
Proficiency level of the students
(challenging but not too difficult.)
· If the task is too easy or too difficult,
the students may be demotivated.
 Common characteristics in
successful speaking tasks
· 
 
 
·   



· !
 


· "
 
· 
 

 Try to avoid students¶ talking in the mother tongue,
and avoid too much Teacher Talk.
·  



 Try to avoid outstanding students¶ dominating
discussions. Try to guarantee equal opportunities for
students of different levels.
· !



 Interesting topic, and clear objective. Make sure that
the task is in line with the students¶ ability
· "
 
· "
 
 The task must be designed so that the
students can complete the task
successfully with the language that they
have. therwise the task will become
frustrating and the students are likely to
give up or revert to the native language.
 • #$
%



· or organizing group work, please refer to
4.2 of Unit 4, on Pages 40-42.
· In 4.2 of Unit 4, four ways of organizing
classroom activities are mentioned:
& '
(
%'
)%'*
+*

** , -./
 dvantages of using group work
·  

 s compared with
activities for the whole class, group work
enables students to talk a lot because it
increases the time for each student to
practise speaking in one lesson.
·  

 roup work helps
students avoid losing their face in front of a
whole class, and thus it makes students
courageous to speak.
· -
·  

 Speaking in a small
group is more natural than speaking in a
large group, because the latter is usually
more formal and requires preparation.
· 
   Students can naturally
perform to their abilities more readily in
small groups than in a whole class, i.e.
students of different levels can participate.
·  
 Small group work helps
students learn to work cooperatively and it
helps develop interpersonal skill  fostering
development of tolerance, mutual respect
and harmony.
 • - 

It is important to provide the students with a
variety of speaking activities because:
· variety of speaking activities will enable
students to cope with different situations in
reality.
· ariety helps keep motivation high.
· ariety may suit students of different
learning styles.
· There are two major purposes for
listening. ne is to get information
and the other is for social reasons.
· Since speaking is reciprocal of
listening, the same is true of
speaking.
· ccording to ittlewood, as has
been mentioned in Unit 2 (p. 18)
communicative speaking activities
can be divided into two types:
f 
 


 


, and 

 

 


:
 Structural ctivities
Pre-C. .
Quasi-com. ctivities
†

 
 
 


unctional Com. ct.
Com. ct. † 


 

Social Interaction ct.
† 

 
 



Information ap, Choices & eed-back)

· or beginning students,  


 


 are also necessary, which are more
structural and allow the learner to practise
the forms of the language. Aowever, %
*




0
  

 



· + 
  



· 
 * 
· 1 


 
 

· (0
  



· 2
 



 + 
 




· Œ
 



ctivity (p.101)
· ctivity B:
Use the same pictures, but cut them up,
paste them on cards, and give each student a
different picture.
irections: sk your partner what is in his/her
picture.
ore example:
Student :
hat¶s in your picture?
Student B: There is __________.
hat¶s in
your picture?
Student : There is __________.
· bviously the second activity includes
an information gap that the first one
does not.
· Information-gap activities can be
designed at a very elementary level, so
that communicative practice can be
done from almost the very beginning
of foreign language learning.
 
*
Two problems with most dialogues in
textbooks:
· 3 
  The natural
speech of native speakers is often phrases or
sentence fragments full of pauses, false
starts, and repetitions.
· %*

Teachers ask students to memorize
dialogues by heart.

hat can a teacher do to make a
dialogue more communicative?

Example 1: Playing the roles in a

dialogue
Step 1. Practise the dialogue in pairs

:
hat time is it?

B: It¶s 3:00.
hy?
: h, I need to go to the store! o you want
to come?
B: 
. Just a minute. I need to finish this first.
Step 2. sk a few pairs to perform the
dialogue in front of the whole class, speaking
in different moods such as happy, irritated,
bored, or in different role relationships such as
parent and a child, husband and wife, two
friends, etc.
The students may paraphrase the underlined
parts:
· ³go to the post office´, ³go to the bank´, etc.
instead of ³go to the store´.
· ³find my jacket/shoes´, etc. instead of
³finish this first´.
 Example 2: Using cue cards
Card
You are talking to a new classmate. Begin the
conversation with a greeting.
1. reet your partner.
2. sk your partner which school he/she went to
before.
3. sk your partner if he/she lives near the school.
4. Suggest you go shopping together after school.
Card B
You are a new student at this school.
ne of your classmates greets you.
1. reet your partner back.
2. nswer the question.
3. nswer the question.
4. espond to the suggestion.
Then students should be ready to move
quickly into less controlled types of role plays,
where only the situation and the relationship
between the two speakers are specified:
Card
You and your friend are going out to eat
lunch. You need to decide where to go.
You would like to try something
different because you¶re tired of the
same food. You make a suggestion.
Card B
You and your friend are going out to eat
lunch. You need to decide where to go.
You would like to go to the place
where you always go, because you like
the food. You don¶t agree with your
friend¶s suggestion.

otice that the outcome of this role play is not

specified in the cue cards. It only sets up a
point of disagreement.
actors that affect the success of
role-plays (Ur, 1996:133)
· Teacher¶s enthusiasm;
· Careful instructions;
· Clear situation and roles;
· Making sure that the students have the
language they will need to carry out
the role-play.
 1 





· In groups of 3 or 4:
 secretary is appointed to mark a tick
for each sentence said. Check which
group has got most ticks.
In pairs: (ittlewood 1981: 23-4)
In groups of 5:
 (0
 



You are on a committee that is in charge of
deciding what to do with a small amount of
money that has been donated to improve your
school. You have a list of things to do, but
you only have enough money for 5 of the
items. You must reach a consensus
(agreement) in your group on which 5 items
you will spend the money. Aere is the list:
· epaint 3 classrooms.
· Paint lines for games on the playground.
· Install lights that automatically turn off to save electricity.
· Buy curtains for 8 classrooms. This will make it easier to
see the AP (verhead Projector) when the room is darker.
· Buy sound absorption panels for 2 classrooms. This will
make the classroom quieter so it will be easier to hear each
other.
· Buy an air conditioner for one classroom.
· Buy 4 new basketball hoops for the playground.
· Buy 15 young trees to be planted for shade around the
edge of the playground.
· Buy fans for 6 classrooms.
· emodel bathroom faucets so students can wash their
hands using hot and cold water.
· dd soap dispensers and hand dryers to bathrooms.
· Problem solving activities require a
higher level of language proficiency,
but the difficulty levels can be
controlled somewhat by the topic.
· In problem-solving activities,
³participants tend to become
personally involved; they begin to
relate the problem as an emotional
issue as well as an intellectual and
moral one´ (Ur 1996:128).
 2
 



4
*%5
e.g. Sand up and walk around the room. sk
your classmates what they like to do.
emember, you must speak in English only!
4
*%5 3
likes to swim
likes to play basketball
likes to play badminton
likes to play tennis
likes to play football
likes to play volleyball
likes to roller skate
likes to ice skate
«
1*  
 0
** 
· : Ai, Tom.
· B: Ai, Sherry.
· : I¶m conducting a survey for our school
newspaper. Could you tell me, do you like to
swim?
· B: Yes, I do. In fact, usually go swimming once or
twice a week.
· : reat.
ould you mind signing your name
here for me please?
· B: Sure, there you are.
· : thanks a lot. See you around.
· B: See you.
 o
 




(This seems to be practising listening rather than

speaking if the words are called out by the teacher.)
 Œ
· Step 1: orm groups of 3-5;
· Step 2: The group together makes a list of
about 20 random verbs.
e.g.   

 
 
    
† 
 
 etc.
· Step 3: Each one writes a short story, and
underlines all the verbs in the story;
e.g.
ƒ

   
 



 


 



   

 


 

 
 

 







 
 





  
 
 


 





· Step 4: Each one read his/her story, but
pauses at every verb. The group then
supplies one of the random verbs into
that slot.
· The results can be very funny.
· possible version may be:
ƒ

  
 





 








   




 
  
 


 

  



 






   
 


 

 
 


 3


The teacher calls out a verb and students hold
up a letter card each and rush to spell a
word. (This seems to be practising listening
rather than speaking.)
 Œ61 *
n the table are a set of picture cards, face down. o one
can see the pictures. Student B holds one of the cards with
a picture on it. Student cannot see the picture, so she
asks Student B a question.
: ³
hat can you see?´
B: ³I can see«´
: ³o. You are lying.´ /³Yes, I believe you.´
If Student is right, he gets the card. If Student is wrong,
Student B gets the card. Then they take turns.
hen the
game is over, the one who has got more cards is the
winner.
 • 7Œ 

· The most important aspect of
preparing students to speak in real
life is to give them as many
opportunities as possible to
practise producing unplanned,
spontaneous and meaningful
speech under time pressure.
 End of Unit 9

Thank you!